In 2003, The Henley Centre, a market research organization in the United Kingdom, surveyed consumers in eleven industrialized countries that together account for more than 75% of the global consumer spending. The main finding — consumers were close to the saturation for things.
  
   Their conclusions “Many of these people don’t actually need anything any more, and this has profound implications for marketers developing products and services. What’s more, many are so surfeited with ’stuff’; they’re starting to question the very notion of consumption and the fundamental purpose of companies.
   
   We’ve identified a big disconnect between what consumers want and what companies are doing. Most companies continue to take a short-term, price and efficiency focused approach to marketing. The biggest potential opportunities lie in satisfying consumers’ more intangible desires - for more time, space and energy, a greater sense of well being and better information.”
  
   “Once people get beyond the point of poverty, their happiness doesn’t increase in line with growing wealth. …The challenge for marketing is to stimulate desire for new sources of consumption that satisfy a person’s often unarticulated real needs, rather than what they think they want.”
  
   This is an excerpt from Chapter Four of my forthcoming book Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company. For more information on the book go to www.AddictedCustomers.com

Posted by John Todor on Friday, July 14th, 2006 at 5:46 am.